Laundry press



April 2 1970 I-IIEIGO KITAYAMA- 3,508,353

LAUNDRY PRES S 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 v Filed Feb. 9. 1968 Aprilz28, 1970 HEIGO KlTAYAMA 3,508,353

LAUNDRY PRESS Filed Feb. 9. 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 April 2 8, 1970 HEIGQ KlTAYAMA 3,508,353

LAUNDRY PRES S Filed Feb. 9, 1968' Y I 5 Sheets-Sheet 5.

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United States Patent O LAUNDRY PRESS Heigo Kitayama, Higashi-Katsushika-gun, Japan, assignor to Sanwa Precisa Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan Filed Feb. 9, 1968, Ser. No. 704,306 Claims priority, application Japan, Feb. 9, 1967,

Int. Cl. D06f 71/34 US. CI. 38-14 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A laundry press adapted to emit steam from a chamber and steam-set the creases along one edge of trousers and the like stacked one upon another with crease-setting sheets interposed between adjacent upper and lower trousers in which such a stack is held down adjacent to and outside of said chamber in such an orientation that said creased edges of the stacked trousers may be exposed to a flow of steam generated in and discharged from said chamber whereas the remaining portions of said stack are shielded from the flow of steam whereby the creases of said plurality of trousers may be simultaneously steam-set in a single setting operation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION For setting creases at folded edges of a plurality of trousers at one time by the use of one prior art laundry press, the people in a laundry shop who had been entrusted to such a job have followed the practice whereby they press the folded edges of each of the trousers so as to crease the edges and then clipped the folded edges of each of the trousers by means of a crease-setting plate. Thereafter, they hung the plates within a specific steam setting chamber in which the overall area of each trouser is subjected to the action of the steam so as to set the creases at the folded edges of the trouser.

SUMMARY OF THE INNVENTION The present invention relates to an improved laundry press for steam-setting the creases at folded edges of a plurality of trousers at one time, and more particularly, to an improved press for emitting steam and applying the steam to one edge of a stack of trousers stacked one upon another which is greatly improved over the abovementioned prior art laundry press for steam-setting the creases at edges of trousers.

One major object of the present invention is to provide a laundry press for steam-setting the creases at folded edges of trousers in which a plurality of trousers having creased edges are stacked one upon another adjacent to and in front of a steam discharge opening in a casing in which a steam emitting device is housed with the creased steam-set creases at edges of trousers which can remain in the trousers for a fairly long period of time.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a highly eificient laundry press which can accelerate the crease-setting operation 'by a great degree.

3,508,353 Patented Apr. 28, 1970 As distinguished over the prior art laundry press for steam-setting the creases at edges of trousers in which after the trousers have been pressed at the folded edges thereof, they are placed into a sealed steam chamber for setting the creases therein by the action of steam within the chamber and in the chamber the overall areas of the trousers are subject to the steam, according to the present invention, only the press-creased edges of the trousers are exposed to the action of steam, and accordingly, a greater number of trousers can be simply and promptly set at the creased edges whereby the efiiciency of the steam-setting operation can be greatly improved.

According to the present invention, there is provided a laundry press adapted to emit steam and steam-set creases at one edge of trousers stacked one upon another, comprising a steam emitting device including a casing having an elongated opening in one wall thereof through which a flow of steam which has been emitted in said device is continuously discharged toward said stacked trousers, and a vertical movable presser device disposed adjacent to and outside of said wall and adapted to hold down said stacked trousers adjacent to and outside of said casing wall with said creases at the one edge of the trousers in substantially contact with the wall whereby said flow of steam may be directed to only said creased edges of the trousers.

The above and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily apparent to those skilled in the art from a reading of the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings illustrate preferred embodiment of the present invention in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a preferred form of laundry press for steam-setting creases at the edges of stacked trousers constructed in accordance with the present invention with a portion thereof broken away;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the laundry press machine as shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is fragmentary plan view of one of the crease setting sheets to be employed in said laundry press illustrated together with one of a pair of trousers;

FIG. 4 is a front elevational view of a modified form of laundry press for steam-setting creases at edges of stacked trousers constructed in accordance with the present invention with a portion thereof broken away;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view on an enlarged scale of a portion of the modified form of laundry press shown in FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view on a further enlarged scale showing a sealing member applied at the steam discharge opening of a steam emitting device and the manner in which trousers are stacked one upon another.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION Reference will be now had to FIGS. 1 and 2. of the accompanying drawings in which a first preferred embodiment of laundry press for steam-setting the creases at the edges of stacked trousers according to the present invention is shown for illustration purpose only, but not for limiting the scope of the invention, in which reference numeral 1 denotes a steam generating and emitting means comprising a rectangular section casing extending in the longitudinal direction of the device and the steam emitting means being adapted to emit steam necessary to set the creases at the edges of trousers as will be described hereinbelow. The front wall of the steam emitting accommodating casing is provided with an elongated opening 3 which is in turn provided with a screen 2 extending across the opening and secured at the upper and lower ends to the upper and lower inner surfaces of the casing. The rear wall of the steam emitting casing is formed with a door 4 which is hinged to the top of the casing at 9 as shown in FIG. 2 and the door is adapted to be manually opened and closed by pivoting the same about the hinge 9. As more clearly shown in FIG. 2, all casing walls except the front wall in which the opening 3 is provided are formed by two spaced panels so as to provide a double-walled construction for the top wall, bottom wall and rear Wall or door 4 of the casing. A suitable heat resisting material is filled in the space between the panels of the top Wall, bottom wall and rear wall or door 4. An upper electric heater 5 and a lower electric heater 6 are provided within and extend in the longitudinal direction of the steam emitting casing 1 in a vertically spaced relation to one another by suitable means and each of the heaters is in the form of a coil in the illustrated embodiment. Provided in front of and spaced from the upper heater 5 is a baffle plate 7 the function of which will be set forth hereinafter. The lower heater 6 is disposed within a water reservoir 8 having a U-shape cross section which is provided within the lower portion of'the steam emitting device 1 by a suitable means spaced from the inner surface of the bottom wall of the casing. The lower heater 6 is adapted to heat and convert the water received within the reservoir '8 into steam whereas the upper heater 5 is adapted to dry the steam vapor rising up from the reservoir 8 to a desired water content. The upper and lower heaters 5 and 6 are connected to an electric power source so as to be energized thereby.

A vertically movable presser plate 11 is provided in front of and slightly spaced from the steam emitting device 1 and the presser plate is connected to the lower end of the threaded shank 24 of a handle 23 so that the height of the presser plate may be adjusted by turning the handle in one or the other direction. The handle 23 is supported in a bent arm 22 having an upper horizontal portion and a lower longer horizontal portion which are connected to one another by a vertical portion. A water level gauge 13 in the form of a graduated glass tube is provided on the outer surface of one side wall of the steam emitting casing in communication with the water reservoir 8 within the casing so that the level of the Water within the reservoir may be at all the times indicated by the gauge 13. A time switch 14 is provided on the outer surface of the front wall of the steam emitting casing 1 and the time switch is adapted to open the circuit to the upper and lower electric heaters 5 and 6 at a predetermined time. The outer surface of the front wall of the steam emitting device casing is further provided with spaced thermostats 15 and 16 which are operatively connected to the upper heater 5 and water reservoir 8, respectively in such a manner that the thermostats control the temperatures of the heater and the water within the reservoir, respectively. The steam emitting device and the associated parts referred to above are supported on a work table W and also fixedly supported on the table is a trouser support plate S which is positioned in front of the front wall of the steam emitting device casing and extends forwardly of the botom wall of the casing.

In operation, prior to the initiation of a pressing operation on the above-mentioned laundry press, two crease setting sheets 12 having length and width substantially smaller than those of trouser leg are first placed on the support plate S one upon another and then a pair of trousers are placed on the top of the upper crease setting sheet in such a manner that one of the outer edges of the trousers may be positioned inwardly of the adjacent or outer edge of the crease setting sheet 12 by a small distance. Thereafter, another crease setting sheet 12 is placed on the pair of trousers 10 with the outer edge thereof in alignment with the outer edges of the lower crease sheets. By repeating the above procedure, a desired number of pairs of trousers 10 are stacked one upon another with each one crease setting sheet 12 interposed between adjacent lower end upper trousers 10. After a desired number of pair of trousers 10 have been stacked in the above manner, lastly two creases setting sheets 12 are stacked one upon another on the uppermost pair of trousers thereby to form a trouser and crease setting sheet stack. Each of the crease setting sheets 12 comprises a length of paper board It having both the sides covered with a piece of flannel m.

After the trouser and crease-setting sheet stack has been formed in the manner as mentioned above, the stack is placed under the presser plate 11 with the outer edges of the crease setting sheets 12 in close contact with the front wall of the steam emitting device casing and pressed down by the presser plate by turning the handle 23 in the tightening direction.

Then, the upper and lower electric heaters 5 and 6 are energized by actuating the suitable power source (not shown) and the lower heater 6 heats the water within the water reservoir 8 to convert the water into steam which rises up within the steam emitting device 1 and the upper electric heater 5 dries the rising steam to a desired moisture content. In this case, the heat from the heater 5 also heats the air prevailing within the interior of the steam emitting device 1 and the moisture-laden elevated temperature air flows through the screen 2 and opening 3 to the trouser and crease setting sheet stack whereby the stacked trousers are subjected to the hot air. The provision of the above-mentioned baflie plate 7 is for the purpose that the heat from the upper heater is prevented from being directed in high concentration to a localized portion of the trouser and crease setting sheet stack whereby the hot air may be uniformly directed to the stack. After a predetermined time of exposure to the hot air, the door 4 is manually opened thereby to cause the air temperature within the steam emitting device 1 to suddenly drop to a substantially reduced value. Such a change in the air temperature permits the creases on the trousers 10 to set rapidly. The thus set creases are quite durable. From the above description in connection with steam-setting of the creases along one edge of stacked trousers, the steam-setting of the creases along the opposite edges of the trousers will be clearly understood and description of the steam-setting operation for the opposite edge creases is omitted herein.

Reference will now be had to FIGS. 4 to 6 inclusive of the accompanying drawings in which a modified form of laundry press according to the present invention is illustratde. This embodiment of press is substantially the same as the first embodiment of the laundry press as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 inclusive and therefore, the same or corresponding parts are indicated with the same reference numerals with the addition of primes thereto. The modified laundry press comprises a modified steam emitting device including a casing 1' which in this embodiment has a single-walled and stepped construction including a smaller upper portion and a larger lower portion that is provided in. its front wall with an opening 3 which is in turn provided with a screen 2' extending across the opening. An upper electric heater 5 in the form of a. serpentine plate or element is disposed adjacent to the opening 3' spaced from the inner side of the screen 2' and is vertically upwardly and downwardly bent to extend a vertical distance shorter than the height of the screen. A lower electric heater 6 in the form of a coil is provided to extend longitudinally of the lower portion of the steam emitting device casing and this lower heater is disposed within a water reservoir 8' which is in the form of a sealed cylindrical tube and which also extends longitudinally of the lower portion of the steam emitting device casing. A bent conduit -17 extends into and communicates at its outwardly bent lower end with the interior of the water reservoir 8 and the vertical upper end of the conduit 17 communicates with the interior of a water replenishing tank 18 provided outside of the steam emitting device '1 in a suitable place higher than the height of the water reservoir 8'. A bent steam conduit 19 communicates at its vertically and downwardly bent lower end with the interior of the water reservoir 8' and its upper horizontal end or outlet communicates with the interior of a small steam chamber 20 which is defined by a substantially U-shaped plate secured at opposite ends to the inner surface of the front casing wall within the lower portion of the vapor emitting device casing behind and extending inwardly of the front wall. The above-mentioned upper electric heater 5' extends verticaly upwardly and downwardly within the steam chamber 20', and also disposed within the steam chamber is a bent baflle plate 21 the upper end of which is secured to the outer surface of the plate defining the chamber 20 with the outwardly and vertically bent lower end being outwardly spaced from the outlet end of the steam conduit 19 whereby the steam spouting out of the conduit 19 may strike against the baffle plate 21 to be dispersed within the chamber 20. The thus dispersed steam is dried and has its moisture content reduced to a desired degree by the upper electric heater 5' and then passed through the screen 2 and opening 3 to the trouser and crease setting sheet stack which has been formed in the same manner as described in connection with the first embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 3 inclusive and which is supported on a support plate S which is the same as the support plate S as described in connection with the first emobidment. A handle support arm 22 which is the same as the arm 22 as described in connection with the first embodiment is disposed around the steam emitting device 1' except for the front side of the device and the arm includes a shorter upper horizontal portion and a longer lower horizontal portion on which a working table W' which is also the same as the working table W as described in connection with the first embodiment and which in turn supports the support plate 5'. The upper horizontal arm portion rotatably receives a handle 23 having a vertically and downwardly extending threaded shank 24 to the lower end of which a presser plate 11' which is the same as the presser plate 11 as described in connection with the first embodiment whereby when the trouser and crease setting sheet stack is placedon the support plate S the stack may be firmly held in position by turning the handle 23 in the direction in which the presser plate 11 is lowered against the top of the stack. A seal member 25 formed of flannel, for example, is secured to the outer surface of the front wall of the lower portion of the steam emitting device casing surrounding the opening 3 whereby the hot air from the steam chamber 20 may be effectively prevented from escaping through the clearance between the front wall of the steam emitting device and the adjacent edges of the presser plate 11' and support plate S and effective crease setting may be performed. A water level gauge 13' which is the same as the water level gauge 13 as described in connection with the first embdirnent is provided on the outer surface of one side wall of the steam emitting device 1 and communicates with the water reservoir 8 so as to indicate the water level within the reservoir. A drain valve 26 is also provided on the same side wall outside of the steam emitting device 1 and communicates with the small steam chamber 20 whereby the water which has been separated from the steam and accumulated in the chamber may be periodically discharged from the chamber through the drain valve. The modified embodiment of press machine also comprises a safety mechanism which includes indicator lamps 27 for indicating the crease setting operation conditions, a switch 28 for energizing and deenergizing the circuits to the electric heaters 5' and 6, a timer control means 29 for controlling the setting of a timer (not shown), thermostats 30 and 31 associated with the upper and lower electric heaters and water reservoir for controlling the temperatures of the heaters and of the water within the reservoir, respectively, a water temperature meter 32 for giving a reading of the water temperature within the water reservoir '8' and an ampere meter 33 for giving a reading of the amount of current flowing through the upper and lower electric heaters.

The operative procedure of the modified laundry press is substantially the same as that for the first embodi-' ment and description of the operative procedure for the modified press is omitted herein.

As clear from the foregoing, as compared with the crease setting by a prior art laundry press in which a stack comprising a plurality of alternately stacked trousers and crease setting sheets is placed into the steam chamber where the creases in the trousers are steam-set, when the creases of the apparel articles are steam-set according to the present invention, the articles may be subjected to less discoloration by such chemical action which would take place in the steam chamber of the prior art laundry press. Especially, according to the present invention, since the articles of apparel to be crease-set can be handled outside of the steam emitting device, the crease-setting operation can be easily and promptly carried out.

Although two preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described and illustrated herein, it is to be understood that these are illustrative in nature and not to be necessarily limiting upon the scope of these teachings in their broader aspects.

What is claimed is:

1. A laundry press adapted to emit steam and steamset creases at the edges of stacked trousers comprising wall means defining a casing, one of said wall means having an elongated opening therein, means within said casing for generating and emitting steam so that the generated steam can flow through said opening, and a vertically movable presser means disposed adjacent to and outside of one wall and adapted to hold down a stack of trousers adjacent to and ouside said opening in said one wall with all said creases at one edge of said stack, closely adjacent the plane containing said one wall whereby steam flowing through said opening is directed to only said creased edge of the stacked trousers.

2. A laundry press as claimed in claim 1, in which said means for generating and emitting steam comprises an upper heater and a lower heater, vertically and laterally spaced from one another within said casing, an open water reservoir mounted in said casing, said lower heater being disposed within said open water reservoir and adapted to convert the water within said reservoir into steam and said upper heater being adapted to dry said steam rising up from said reservoir to a desired water content.

3. A laundry press as claimed in claim 1, in which said means for generating and emitting steam comprises an upper heater and a lower heater, vertically and laterally spaced from one another within said casing, a sealed water reservoir, said lower heater being disposed within said sealed water reservoir and adapted to convert the water within said reservoir into steam, means defining a steam chamber located adjacent to, inwardly of and communicating with said opening in said one wall, said upper heater being disposed within said steam chamber and adapted to dry said steam from said reservoir to a desired water content, a water replenishing tank with said casing, conduit means connecting said water replenishing tank to said Water reservoir for supplying water to said reservoir for conversion into steam and a 7 8 steam conduit connected at one end to said sealed Water References Cited reservoir and having its other end communicating with UNITED STATES PATENTS said steam chamber so that generated steam may flow from said water reservoir through said steam conduit into 3251122 8/1885 Shearelf said steam chamber and out of said opening in said one 3,064,363 11/1962 Ikeuchl 34-145 wall of said casin 5 4. A laundry p ress as claimed in claim 1, and further MERVIN STEIN Pnmary Exammer including a screen disposed across said opening inwardly G. V. LARKIN, Assistant Examiner of said one wall in which said opening is formed and a seal means attached to the exterior of said wall and 10 encircling said opening and screen. 

